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Facebook’s HR head reveals why staff (really) love working for it

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Eriko Talley, head of human resources APAC, Facebook expands on the three ideas the tech giant has adopted to ensure it maintains its standing as an inclusive and caring employer.

Be Bold like Ginger. Dimmer Than Sugar Cane. Wind Blow Water Rise.

Visitors to our Hong Kong office may be forgiven for doing a double-take, when they chance upon these delightfully colloquial names on our meeting room doors.

Coined by our local employees from popular Cantonese sayings, these names are intended to be emblematic of their city’s culture and heritage, as with the office decor and furnishings.

Like our offices around the world, the Hong Kong office is designed to reflect our founding ethos and core values of openness, simplicity and cultural connection.

These permeate across all our offices in the region, bringing to life Facebook’s mission to make the world more open and connected.

Like our offices around the world, the Hong Kong office is designed to reflect our founding ethos and core values of openness, simplicity and cultural connection.

We seek to instill the same in other facets of the workplace – such as through our unique approach to talent development, which includes initiatives like fuel moments, work-life integration and our very own hack culture.

Fuel moments

“Fuel” is our workplace concept to empower people to achieve extraordinary results, develop their careers and lead full lives. It is built across three pillars: employees, managers and Facebook itself, and here are some examples of how it works:

• Challenging employees to stay healthy with the Health@Challenge and encouraging them to incorporate exercise and wellness into their daily activities.

• Having a flexible work schedule allows employees to adjust their days according to their personal priorities whenever reasonable. For example, one of our business leaders comes to work very early so he can be home late afternoon to help the children with their homework and enjoy dinner with the family.

• Helping managers build greater self-awareness so that they can become stronger coaches, support their teams better and pivot career conversations to “whole life check-ins”.

• Creating precious time with their families when employees travel for work. For example, some mothers bring their children, spouses and even parents with them on business trips at their own expense. This makes being away from home easier and better, and at the same time allows them to squeeze a weekend family holiday.

• Inviting family to the office on special days like “Bring your family to work day” and for casual drop-ins.

• Providing additional amenities in the office such as TVs and entertainment gaming consoles, which allow employees to watch their favourite events like the US Open or World Cup, or take breaks between meetings to enjoy their favourite games.

• Employees can also take some quiet time during the day in our zen rooms, which have massage chairs in most of our offices.

• Making work tools more efficient, such as simplified expense reporting and a “calendar fuel” to help employees track their use of time.

The goal of work-life flexibility is simple: to make life easier for our employees so that they can focus on the work they love to do by allowing flexibility while expecting greater ownership of their work.

Work-life flexibility

We are not a believer in work-life balance because “balance” means constantly trying to prioritise each side.

Instead, we emulate the same level of innovation in our products into building a culture and a company that redefines the way work gets done.

The goal of work-life flexibility is simple: to make life easier for our employees so that they can focus on the work they love to do by allowing flexibility while expecting greater ownership of their work.

Quirky meeting room names aside, our offices are set around tasks instead of desks,and we create an environment that is comfortable and inspiring for all:

• Our open kitchen is stocked with a wide range of complimentary food and beverages, which have been voted for or requested by our own employees.

• A significant portion of our offices is devoted to our chill-out lounges, where professional endeavours blend with personal passions, reflected in stimulating book shelves, games and local artworks.

• Our “Write Something Wall”captures messages to reflect the office’s diverse fabric and its connections with the community, making a simple yet powerful statement that everyone is welcome and valued.

• All around our offices, we also have inspirational posters such as “People not Pixels”, “All glory comes from daring to begin” and “Nothing at Facebook is somebody else’s problem”.

• We also have a dedicated “Mother’s Room” for working and visiting mothers.

Hacking has an unfairly negative connotation in popular culture, but in reality it just means building something quickly or pushing the boundaries for positive change.

Hack culture

“The Hacker Way” is our own unique culture and management approach at Facebook. Hacking has an unfairly negative connotation in popular culture, but in reality it just means building something quickly or pushing the boundaries for positive change.

Facebook is a strong believer in continuously building and improving itself and the world, which is what powers our “Hack Culture”, where employees regularly gather to “hack” problems and create new ideas, in fact, some of our new product innovations have come from such “hackathons”. We believe that things can always be better and nothing is ever complete.

To sum up, our philosophy also encapsulates our approach to developing and inspiring our many talents across the region and around the world.

This means never being afraid to challenge conventional thinking, and always striving for the better.